Still, I maintain I liked the concept of this program, and when skated clean I expect high marks, but the judges will no longer be giving marks to hold her up when she skates bad, like today. :(

well judges still "hold her up" because she got the second highest PCS after a clean carolina. Her technical scores are low because of her mistakes. judging of mao was perfect, there cannot be any complaint!

You can really tell Caroline has reworked everything and really tried to work on her speed but she still has a long way to go, I think Good for her though! Soooo nice to see the mule kick gone.

I liked Rachael's LP costume. She llooked good .. the best of the three Americans this competition, I thought, but she didn't hit it out of the park or anything. The scores are loowwww in this competition, no?

Is Kiira Korpi EVER going to hit all her jumps? Sigh. Well, she looked gorgeous as usual. Can't wait to see Caro.

To bad about Mao's jumps other than that IMO her program is first rate just not skated well at all.

Carolina my girl was on. Well deserved first place. Loved every part of her SP, she really shined, so happy for her.

Kanako first time I have seen her skate, she has it all to succeed.

The US Ladies were o.k. Nothing really stood out for me. I liked Racheal's hair and dress
and kudos to Caroline for fixing her jump technique. It is early in the season and I am sure
we will see their programs improve.

I watched the whole ladies event this time because I was interested to see how the new rules would apply. I'm glad I did. I saw some very nice programs. Some thoughts:

1. Contrary to our predictions, no lady except Mao really went for the big guns (most went for 3-2s). I guess that means it will take time for ladies to start taking advantage of the new UR rule. Perhaps to peak in March?

2. I love how the spiral's now being used as transition elements & how I don't have to bear the torture of ugly, prolonged, choreographically-meaningless spiral sequences. I was horrified by the new rule at first, but now I see that SPs are much more pleasing thanks to it.

3. Scores are much lower in general because of (1) the omission of spiral sequences (2) the new GOE factoring and (3) the watered down jump layout in general. I want to see the protocols already. I think I'll re-work scores according to the old system, so that we can actually compare side-to-side & translate this first crop of SP scores into the numbers we had gotten used to.

Great night for some of the ladies. The American skaters were really awesome.

I watched the whole ladies event this time because I was interested to see how the new rules would apply. I'm glad I did. I saw some very nice programs. Some thoughts:

1. Contrary to our predictions, no lady except Mao really went for the big guns (most went for 3-2s). I guess that means it will take time for ladies to start taking advantage of the new UR rule. Perhaps to peak in March?

2. I love how the spiral's now being used as transition elements & how I don't have to bear the torture of ugly, prolonged, choreographically-meaningless spiral sequences. I was horrified by the new rule at first, but now the SPs were much more pleasing, in part because of it.

3. Scores are much lower in general because of (1) the omission of spiral sequences (2) the new GOE factoring and (3) the watered down jump layout in general. I want to see the protocols already. I think I'll re-work scores according to the old system, so that we can actually compare side-to-side & translate this first crop of SP scores into the numbers we had gotten used to.

Great night for some of the ladies. The American skaters were really awesome.

I wondered if the sprial sequence had to do witht he scores. Maybe the judges are still getting used to the new rules? Or maybe the skaters still haven't figured out how to get the most out of the new rules. Anway, we saw some very nice programs. I didnt' think the American ladies were all that awesome, I have to admit. They were solid for their first competition. It'll be very interesting to see how everyone holds up in the LP.

In general, I thought everyone looked rather cautions. Like they know it's not Olympic year and they're not going for broke... except Caro who is the one with the most to prove.

The high PCS for Kanako's junior program I don't understand at all. Some expert out there to explain?

1. The event was in Kanako's "hood," or so to speak--the audience was loud and supportive, homecooking, etc
2. Kanako's program and packaging definitely screamed JUNIOR AND PROUD OF IT but it was OK for what it was, IMO--her highest PCS was in PE and IN, which makes sense since Kanako skated with good energy and verve that suited the music, etc